The Department of Rhetoric is a leading center for interdisciplinary research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences.
Linked by a common interest in the functions of discourse in all its forms, faculty and students engage the theoretical, historical, and cultural dimensions of interpretation and criticism, in fields as diverse as political theory, gender, law, media studies, philosophy, and literature. The Department is also committed to the study of rhetorical traditions, from the classical era to contemporary rhetorical theory.
08/30/2023
Presenting the ucberkeley Rhetoric Colloquium Talks | David Chai: Names are Guests of Reality.
This talk explores the reasons why Daoism views all human-centric concepts as“guests” of reality, and the repercussions of this stance on understanding of the self.
04/24/2023
Check out our Summer Sessions course offerings:
Rhetoric R1A: Retrieval & Rescue: Towards a Rhetoric of Return in the African Diaspora.
T/W/Th, 10am-12:30pm
Instructor: Osarugue Otebele
In The Oracle (Andy Amenechi,1998), after stealing and selling an object of ancestral worship from their village, 4 men face violent consequences from the haunting spirit attached to the object. In 2022, the British Museum began the first phase of a series of reparations of Benin artifacts first looted from Nigeria in 1897. With the repatriation (loaning) of objects at the center of art and post-colonial discourses, how do African diasporic subjects imagine, embody and (re)present the return of these often sacred and activated objects? This course explores the potentialities and politics of “return,” specifically that of looted objects of the African diaspora. We will examine how African artists, filmmakers and writers attempt to conceive an individual and collective language of repatriation that considers both its necessity and the conditions of its impossibility. Throughout the course, we will engage with literary and visual objects that allow us to investigate how attempts at repatriation bring up questions of trauma, grief, nostalgia, mourning, punishment, and revenge. Student engagement with the artists and texts in the course will require both written and oral presentations where they will be able to demonstrate understanding of how cultural productions of the African diaspora perform an act of retrieval while also challenging and/or championing repatriation.
The course fulfills the R1A requirement.
03/09/2023
Today is !
On this day of philanthropy toward UC Berkeley, we ask that you consider directing your gift toward supporting our highly deserving Rhetoric graduate students. Contribute to the Felipe Rochon Gutterriez Graduate Student Endowment: https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FW6528000
If you prefer to give to Rhetoric in some other way, please donate to The Department of Rhetoric Fund: https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FN7240000
Thank you,
The Rhetoric Department at UC Berkeley
rhetoric.berkeley.edu
10/17/2022
On October 17th, Assistant Professor Kelli Moore and former BCNM executive member Hannah Zeavin will join us to discuss the struggle for justice in gender violence crimes amidst the popularization of digital tools in "A Minor Cybernetic Hypothesis".
Interested? Check out our website for more information!
https://bit.ly/3QdVOKh
06/08/2022
New transfer student? Why not take Rhetoric 189 this summer with Dr. Atkinson. Six week session starts on July 5.
06/06/2022
Check out the Rhetoric class offerings at classes.berkeley.edu. Rhetoric 116 will be offered during Session D: July 5 - August 12 with Dr. Atkinson and Dr. Dalebout.
05/25/2022
Are you still looking for a Rhetoric course for the summer? Here are our summer course offerings: summer.berkeley.edu
04/28/2022
Check out Rhetoric's summer course offerings here: summer.berkeley.edu
03/11/2022
Last Chance to support The Rhetoric Department for !
We kindly ask that you consider directing your gift toward supporting our highly deserving Rhetoric graduate students. Contribute to the Felipe Rochon Gutterriez Graduate Student Endowment: https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FW6528000
If you prefer to give to Rhetoric in some other way, please donate to The Department of Rhetoric Fund: https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FN7240000
Thank you very much!
The Department of Rhetoric
rhetoric.berkeley.edu
03/10/2022
Today is !
On this day of philanthropy toward UC Berkeley, we ask that you consider directing your gift toward supporting our highly deserving Rhetoric graduate students. Contribute to the Felipe Rochon Gutterriez Graduate Student Endowment: https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FW6528000
If you prefer to give to Rhetoric in some other way, please donate to The Department of Rhetoric Fund: https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FN7240000
Thank you,
The Rhetoric Department at UC Berkeley
rhetoric.berkeley.edu
03/07/2022
Dear students, alums, friends and supporters of Rhetoric at Berkeley,
We continue to be a small department with a great reputation—the best graduate students and liveliest undergraduates on campus! We hope you are in a position to help us sustain the excitement of learning here!
The Big Give is just around the corner: Thursday, March 10. The Big Give is an annual online day of giving when you show support for your favorite institutions through contests and social media shout-outs. We appreciate any and all contributions that you make to the Graduate Student Endowment that we established to honor our very own Felipe Rochon Gutterriez. Interest from this growing fund supports Rhetoric graduate students: https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FW6528000
If you would prefer to contribute to another aspect of the program, please feel free to use this link to the general fund: The Department of Rhetoric: https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FN7240000
Note that it doesn’t matter how much you give! Please show your support for Rhetoric!
Thank you so much,
On behalf of the Department of Rhetoric
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